In the past, buttons, particularly buttons for dress shirts, were fabricated from mother-of-pearl. The mother-of-pearl was durable and met the requirements of the clothing industry for many years. Nonetheless, much of the clothing industry switched to a less expensive polyester resin material when easy-care permanent-press fabrics were introduced in the 1960's
While the polyester resin buttons are sufficient for shirts that do not require pressing, they do not perform well when subjected to the hot presses and commercial laundering detergents that are now widely used, particularly for all-cotton shirts. Commercial laundering subjects the buttons to significant wear and stress, and the polyester resin tends to become brittle with age. A men's dress shirt is particularly prone to these problems because the smaller collar and cuff buttons are more likely to break than larger buttons.
Button breakage presents a significant problem for the commercial laundering business, as well as the consumer Commercial laundries must often replace the buttons that are broken during the laundering process. Commercial laundries use a large number of buttons due to this problem and often employ one or more persons whose sole responsibility is to replace broken buttons. This costs the laundry a great deal of money for manpower and materials.
The dress shirt industry has recognized this problem and has expended a great deal of time and effort to identify a practical solution. See, for example, the article "Scramble Is On to Develop the Unbreakable Button," published in the New York Times on Sep. 11, 1989. It is disclosed therein that experts have experimented with buttons having different materials, shapes, sizes, and thicknesses. Also see the article "All broken up: Shirt maker tackles that button problem," in the Milwaukee Journal, Dec. 27, 1989.
Despite this long felt need by the clothing industry and the efforts exerted by the industry, a practical solution to the problem has not previously been identified.
For the button to be useful, the button must have a high strength and be resistant to corrosion from extremely hot steam presses, high concentrations of dry cleaning solvents or detergents, and the like.